The US dollar was trading flat against other major currencies during the early part of Wednesday’s session. After spending the previous session on the front foot due to increased volatility in the bond market and rising yields triggered by the prospect of inflation returning in the aftermath of the pandemic, the greenback shed some of those gains on Tuesday, as calm returned to the market and the 10 year Treasury yield dropped from the 1.6% reached last week to the current 1.4%.
Oil is showing limited volatility with investors are in wait and see mode ahead of the OPEC meeting, which is likely to be a significant market mover for the sector. A reduction of the curbs in production imposed in the last few months could slow down the recent price rally but would probably not stop the recovery trend which has been in place since May 2020.
Carlo Alberto De Casa – Chief analyst, ActivTrades
EUROPEAN SHARES
Share markets edged higher in Europe on Wednesday, following the trend from Asia, as investors’ focus returns to the stimulus-fuelled recovery. Even if both the situation on bond markets and the uncertainty over the future pace of change in interest rates remain as a central question for stock traders, the short-term focus is on macro data and stimulus moves by governments. The best European performance comes from the FTSE-100 Index after investors were reassured by the extension of the UK’s furlough scheme. This has resulted in UK shares outperforming the rest of Europe (STOXX-50) as the benchmark now flirts with the 6,700pts level. A clearing of this zone could quickly lead prices higher towards 6,722pts and ultimately to 6,800pts. However, today could see increased volatility spikes as investors react to today’s batch of macro news with the UK’s PMI report and budget announcement as well as the US’s ADP report and ISM non-manufacturing PMI.
Pierre Veyret– Technical analyst, ActivTrades
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Experienced writer and journalist, working in the global online trading sector, Steffy is the Editor of LeapRate. She has previous experience as a copywriter and has been with the company since January 2020. Steffy has a British and American Studies degree from St. Kliment Ochridski University in Sofia.
